Greetings Everyone, I thought this would be a good time to give some ideas on the future of the LANs. As we all know equipment breaks down, new games come out, cables can break. As of right now everything is fine, All our equipment works and is stable enough for the small crowd of usual Gamers that show up, however once attendance is up we have several things that become a big issue right away. So here are some things to keep in mind while you’re at one of our lans

Issue #1: OUR GAME SERVER IS A CONVERTED DESKTOP!

As all things start, ISNLAN started small, a single person would host a server on his desktop and people would connect to that. Back in the Days of quake, that was not much of a problem(even with multi tasking), but now people are transferring files from one another, and listening to music and leaving all sorts of other programs up in the background, Do you know what happens when the guy hosting “Alt+Tab”s during a game? "CONNECTION INTERUPTED" for a split second then your 50feet away from where you started...

So to relieve this issue we at ISNLAN took a desktop and converted it into our dedicated server box, Built out of a hyper threaded Pentium D This computers only purpose is to have dedicated games run on it, no one plays on it, nothing else runs on it, So it’s gotten rid of most of the issues that usually come with hosting it on a desktop. The only Downside with this solution is the computer has been through water damage, and although the burned out parts have been replaced it really is living on borrowed time.

 
Issue #2: Networking

It’s not hard to guess what happens at a LAN, Someone always has a shared folder of something, and of course everyone is trying to grab it off the network. Thanks to the efforts of the ISNLAN crew we already have a decent solution in place, a 24port 10/100mbs managed switch, This removes most of the network latency and allows us to host 22 people to the lan (ports 23-24 are reserved for ISNLAN use), which is of course very good but once again I present the gloomy side of things. The equipment we are currently using is well over 6 years old and is definitely not the latest and greatest, It has led a fairly simple life and hasn’t been put to work since the day it was built, we have no idea how it will act under heavy load or how much longer it will last, and if you take a look at a similar model [here] they aren’t cheep to replace.

But of course what would networking be without cabling! Not much that’s for sure, At the start of the ISNLANs we always had spare cables on had just in case someone forgot one, over the years the cables have been broken, cut and bent to the point there unusable. Right now I am looking at the cost of making our own cables for the lans which would be included in the price of admission if it comes to that point, I’m even looking into building some sort of cable system so that each station at the lan will have its own jacks at it. This may prove to be a much more inexpensive solution in the long, But for right now be sure to bring your own Ethernet Cable!

Greetings, today I have some finalized information on the date and time of the next LAN

Location

The next LAN will be hosted at the Kochville Fire station in there training room On December 27th; this is a confirmed date and location so we won’t be able to change it now. As for parking, we are to park in the back lot, directly behind the fire station, someone will be at the door on that side to let you in. A quick side note, the fire station doubles as a sheriff outpost, so please respect all police vehicles in the parking lot.

Times

For the most part we do not have a schedule set, setup (as usual) will be from Noon until 1pm which hopefully includes troubleshooting games and connection problems. We have use of the Fire station Training room until midnight, so we have to be packed up and gone by then or face a possible fine (mostly due to the above mentioned fact there is a sheriffs outpost in the station)

Rules

Yea I know I'm being a buzz kill but rules are rules, Right now the use of the Fire department training room is free, we have free use of a kitchen and a full men’s bathroom, so we don’t charge anything for getting into the LAN and we would like to keep it that way! So here are some guidelines to follow, so LANs can keep on being free.

1. NO REAL / REALISTIC / FAKE WEAPONS!
2. NO ALCOHOL
3. NO MESSING AROUND WITH ANY FIREDEPARTMENT EQUIPMENT
4. DO NOT MESS WITH ANYONES COMPUTER BUT YOUR OWN.
5. NO MENTOS AND DIET COKE*
6. DO NOT DRINK ANYONE ELSE'S DRINK**

* Due to a past incident mentos and Diet Coke are not allowed Near the vehicles
** From time to time the ISNLAN crew might provide Drinks for you, do not assume this as a fact, always ask before you crack into that 2litter

Greetings all,
Welcome to the ISNLAN (temporary) website, we are here to post information about Lans hosted by the ISNLAN group.
We will have more up to date information in the days to come.